Written By: Kelly McGuinness, President, United Mortgage
I was curled up recently in my favorite chair reading my favorite magazine and came across two articles dealing with transformation. One was about a woman who had committed to a daily rigorous yoga class conducted in high temperature; the other was a member of the magazine staff who had agreed to diet and have her progress followed each month.
I started thinking: Our industry is wrought with people who have been forced to transform themselves and their business models. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Loan Officer Magazine had a monthly column dedicated to the development of a new loan officer’s business from the ground up? What is working? What’s not? A fresh perspective during a turbulent time!
There are two reasons this idea developed traction. First, Karen Deis has had to reinvent herself on several occasions. Karen had moved with her husband to two different markets (specifically …two different states) and both times had to build a loan officer business with no contacts!
Secondly, as a leader in training in the mortgage industry, Karen is exposed to many different marketing and sales ideas and programs. Wouldn’t it be valuable to road test them with a committed loan originator who could work the program; evaluate lead and loan opportunities and report back on successes?
And I’m just the person for the job! I have owned my mortgage company for over 23 years and have always been a non-producing manager. At this point in my career, based on market conditions, I decided I wanted to develop my own production. This poses some logistical issues for me as I have always handed referral partners and personal loans to my loan origination staff. So I need to start from scratch.
Karen and I are dear friends and I thought who better to write a marketing blueprint for me than Karen? So I proposed the project to Karen and here we are.
Each month we will launch a production initiative; I will dedicate myself to the implementation and management of the campaign and then report back on the successes, pitfalls and lessons. My goal? At the end of 12 months to have produced a six-figure loan officer income with practices anyone can duplicate!
We are launching the program, which we have aptly titled $100k Marathon, June 20, 2010.
During the first 30 days I will be launching a corporate benefits program and a program for credit repair. I think the corporate benefits program allows me to go into an arena that most loan officers ignore and will reap the most number of leads the quickest.
Credit repair is a program that is of great interest to consumers and will “bank” leads that can be developed over a period of time. Next month I will chronicle the steps I took to launch the programs as well as an accounting of lead development and any expenses I incur.
I am using the following assumptions for business planning and lead to closing conversion:
The $100K paycheck!
Developing Loans!
Now, we are ramping from scratch so we know we can’t come out of the box with these numbers…each month we’ll chronicle how many leads; applications; loans and fundings actually occurred as I train for this exciting professional marathon!
Wish me luck!
Copyright - 2010 - LoanOfficerMagazine.com
